7.3.13

 Christmas in July? It IS a popular theme for SALES and projects of all types. I recently checked out this book from the library solely because of the cover. 

Yes, I DO judge a book by its cover. I think that is an important part of making up my mind about how to proceed. Kind of like that old saying about First Impressions. When you see a stranger and get that creepy feeling, the rest of your awareness is heightened and you prepare yourself. When you see that book with colors that make your heart happy, you reach out and extend your hand, inviting a closer relationship.

This book is written by two sisters, Loraine Manwaring and Susan Nelsen. They have co-authored other books and when I looked them up, I found that I had read one or two before. Generally, anything published by That Patchwork Place is a sure thing for quilt enthusiasts. This one has a few little interesting things inside but by far the cover is what I liked best. I see a lot of potential for a black and white background and I am going to spend some time thinking about that...

3.9.13

My Barn Quilt, Variable Star

One day, while wandering around the internet on some of my favorite sites, I found a BARN CHALLENGE. Bee in my Bonnet designed a 14" barn block--with a quilt on it! 

Weather Vane Block

Well, I had NO trouble pulling fabric for a red barn. I did have a problem using the weather vane block as my barn quilt, though. 
I do REALLY like the weather vane block and Bee does a wonderful tutorial but my barn fabrics were too formal for such a cute little design.

Instead, my barn has a different star.  Now I feel compelled to go back and make a second one and use the weather vane design.

2.1.13

By the time you are reading this, I expect I have had a very humbling experience in a beginner quilt class. I am posting these pictures of a quilt I made for my father and his little dog a couple of years ago in case I need to remind myself that I really DO know how to quilt no matter how hard I found it to do a full day beginner lesson.

I remember I bought a couple of charm packs--five inch square pieces of fabric that sample an entire line of fabric. I bought them when charm packs were an affordable choice. I think I paid under $5 for each pack. I used a sett like one my grandmother and great-aunt used on a baby quilt for my brother ( Streak O'Sunshine, I think it is called). I followed a diagonal line up for the color groups. I really liked the fabric I found for the backing. 

This is the first quilt that I used Big Stitch for the quilting. I remember spreading it out on the dinning room table and quilting in diagonal lines to emphasize the color arrangement. It was fun to do and came together really quickly. Now it is a nap quilt for my father and a different little dog.

10.5.12

 I have spent four days trying to make a studio out of my huge gigantic piles. I now ALMOST have things assigned to certain areas 

  
depending on the technique used to accomplish the project. As usual, I have found a billion things I forgot I had. 
That is okay, though. Today there is a sale at the Quilt Shop on Main in Jasper 


and I can get some more fabric that might help finish the billion projects. Or start some new ones.

So if you live anywhere near Pickens County and you are at home in your jammies reading this post, get up, get dressed, get going. This is going to be a great sale.


 


Did you guess that I would be looking for red fabrics? I am also looking for this book by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley. Our Applique class is headed for stained glass style--not really my cup of tea. While looking for a pattern I might like in stained glass, I found this book. I absolutely DID check to see if my library had it--they did not. 

P.S. I DID find some stained glass style I could live with over at Three Swans Studios. For instance, what do you think of this? Yeah, me, too. Lovely but too fiddly with all the petals on THE SUNFLOWER. I think
  
Original Quilty Friend might like this one. It looks like it has fabrics she might like. I kind of like it, too.Ooops. LEAVES AND BERRIES does not count as stained glass. I guess my tiles book does not count either. Although tiles and this little design have space between the applique, they do not have the black lines that imitate the leading in real stained glass. 

These are more stencil style. Too bad because look what else they have that I like. TULIPS, PINKS, DIANTHUS, and SUMMER ROSES. Check them out under the subtitle, Applique.

If it must be stained glass style, I choose PICES. Isn't it a dandy? The website says, "The design was inspired by a stained glass Pisces from a window in the magnificent 13th century Chartres Cathedral in France." I have seen the original!

5.27.12

Pretty fabric! A friend at Pieceful Mountain Quilt Guild taught us how to make liners for bread and roll baskets at the beginning of the month. I was having back issues so another friend squared off my fabric for me. A couple of days later, I had it sewn up and in the mail! It was fun to make and I selected several other fat quarters to use to make these liners for Christmas gifts.

4.6.12

So. One of my guilds is having a "garage sale". Again, I go through my stash looking for just the right things with which to part. Oh, oh. I found batik frog squares. I bought them years and years ago. They are sort of 4.5" square. Sort of. Oh, look at this fabric! It is a pretty creamy sea foam turquoise. Is that really a color? Some of the frogs look  quite nice. Probably not enough fabric, though. Oh, here is some muted taxi yellow. Good thing when I was playing with my Sunbonnet Sue I selected the smaller piece of this to function as background. Oh! some of the frogs look great!

These frogs came in sets of 9. I bought a set with a coupon for 40% off at my favorite central Florida fabric store, The Sewing Studio in Maitland. Several years after that, I realized 9 little squares would not make much. I ordered two more sets to boost an order from eQuilter. So, now there are 27 frogs. Even with enough border on each one to make the squares 9.5 inches each, 27 squares is just not enough for a quilt. I need one more. I could order another set and add another column. I would still have one left and I would be out $15.99. 

What should I do?

1.26.12

It is Thursday, so I am at OASIS, finishing my hearth basket. This one with the blue and purple colors, in fact. I haven't decided which basket will be next. 

Chair caning is going well and my caning teacher will be teaching a class on a jar quilt. I have tentatively signed up for that as well as a Celtic weave quilt class--kind of like baskets and quilts mixed--and a paper pieced teapot square class, too.

I have not run out of things to do.